Draft party: Free Jazz tickets for everyone!
A couple thousand fans who showed up to the Jazz’s draft-night party Thursday got a free hot dog and soft drink along with a voucher to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game.
The true diehards – all 40 of them, according to Brad Rock’s calculations – who waited patiently for four-plus hours for Kevin O’Connor to announce that yet another European big man is headed Utah’s way ended up with another party favor.
Before telling the small group of gung-ho draft party animals that the Jazz were going to take Goran Suton, a 6-10 Bosnian center from Michigan State, O’Connor announced that everybody still in attendance would receive a ticket to a Jazz game.
Too bad he couldn’t have done a similar giveaway to appease antsy Jazz fans who were bummed out that Tyler Hansbrough was taken by Indiana with the 13th pick. Many national mock drafts, including one by ESPN.com analyst Chad Ford, predicted the North Carolina standout was headed the Jazz’s way.
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Point guard Eric Maynor is not only giving his his mid-major college, Virginia Commonwealth University, a rare representative in the NBA, but he’s also carrying the torch for his conference, the Colonial Athletic Association.
Maynor, taken 20th by the Jazz, is the first Ram ever to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. On top of that, the VCU program has only had four players in its history make either the NBA or ABA. That group includes Gerald Henderson, who played in the NBA from 1979-91 and whose son, Gerald, was drafted by Charlotte in the first round Thursday.
The others, which you probably already know, are: Jesse Dark (1974), Bernie Harris (1974) and Edmund Sherod (1982).
By the way, Old Dominion’s Cal Bowdler was the last player from the CAA to be picked up in the draft. He was taken 17th overall by Atlanta in 1999.
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Had to laugh when Darren Collison got picked up with the 21st pick. The UCLA guard, if you’ll recall, declined working out for the Jazz, apparently because he didn’t want to get stuck in a limited role behind Deron Williams.
So, instead, Collison was taken by the New Orleans Hornets, who happen to have their own fairly decent point guard on the roster.
Then again, maybe Collison thinks he can beat out Chris Paul for playing time.